medications

Scientist infects himself with computer virus

A senior research fellow in the U.K. says he has become the first person in the world to be infected by a computer virus.

Technically, the chip Mark Gasson inserted into his hand is infected, which one could argue keeps the virus limited to the domain of the chip even though it lives inside the man.

But Gasson, of the University of Reading's School of Systems Engineering, suggests this argument is immaterial because he is demonstrating that increasingly sophisticated medical implants will become vulnerable to computer viruses. Which means that those implants that are vital to a human'… Read more

Breakthrough in tissue engineering: 'Bio-Legos'

Researchers have been working on the problem of tissue engineering for years because the payoff would be so great. The ability to construct new organs would mean that patients won't necessarily have to wait for transplants.

But growing cells in lab dishes that are three-dimensional instead of flat has proved to be incredibly tricky. One group, however, claims to have made a major breakthrough.

The solution, according to a team at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), could be as simple (but incredibly elegant) as building the equivalent of biological Legos, whose structures far more closely … Read more

Intuit to buy health care firm Medfusion

Best known for its Quicken software, Intuit is moving further into the health care market through a new acquisition.

Intuit announced Tuesday that it will pay $91 million in cash to buy Medfusion, a privately-held company that sells online services to let patients and doctors' offices interact with each other electronically.

Based in Cary, N.C., MedFusion's services fill a niche in the area of patient-to-provider communications, according to the company. Its online services let patients set up appointments, fill out forms, pay bills, refill prescriptions, and receive lab results electronically. People can contact office staff or ask the … Read more

Google Health gains partners

Google is moving forward in the booming health care technology market.

The search giant this week announced several new partnerships designed to expand its free Google Health service.

Google Health is the company's attempt to offer an online medical portal where you can research medical conditions and issues, find doctors and health care professionals, and track down other health-related Web sites. You can also compile and store a health profile by adding test results, names of medications, insurance information, and electronic medical records from your computer or from third-party partners.

One of Google's new partners is Surescripts, a … Read more

Study: Medical identity theft is costly for victims

When your wallet is lost or stolen, the first thing you probably do is call your credit card companies. You should also notify your medical insurance provider judging from the conclusions of a report to be released on Wednesday that finds that medical identity fraud can be very costly.

With identity fraud, most people think of criminals stealing Social Security numbers and credit card data to take out loans or make purchases that the victim is responsible for. But there is a growing amount of medical-related identity theft in which someone uses another person's identity or insurance information to … Read more

Symantec to play host to health care companies

Symantec on Monday announced the launch of a hosting service designed to let health care providers store, archive, and share their medical records.

The company's new Symantec Health service is designed to help hospitals and health care companies offload the costs and internal resources used to house medical records. As health care firms are forced to keep more image-based files, such as lab tests, for longer retention times, their storage costs have soared, said Symantec. The Symantec Health service will offer an alternative cloud-based storage environment where companies can budget and pay only for what they need.

The service … Read more

Clean your computer's clock

This program, like many others, promises to clean your Registry, make your computer run faster, and, if you're lucky, do your dishes, too. At least when it comes to cleaning your Registry, Advanced Registry Optimizer seems to do a pretty good job.

The scan process was easy to initiate and was done in about 3 minutes, although don't forget that the scan time depends on the computer system. A smart-looking row of five tabs and their labels makes navigating the program options stress-free, and the lack of lag on the system was much appreciated. The user interface has … Read more

Video Scout: For surgeons or James Bond?

We've come a long way, baby.

Back when the first endoscope was developed in 1806 to probe "the canals and cavities of the human body," the Vienna Medical Society ruled it to be something of an inappropriate technology, and improvements on such devices were slow-going for decades.

Today the field of endoscopy has splintered out into dozens of areas, playing key roles in procedures that involve almost every part of the human body, from colonoscopies (colon) to rhinoscopies (nose), colposcopies (cervix) to bronchoscopies (airways). The tiny cameras used in these procedures make David Pogue's column look like a review of ancient relics.

At just 3 millimeters in diameter, BC Tech's Video Scout is one of the smallest medical cameras in the world, according to the company's VP of business development, Charlie Skinner:

Medical companies can integrate the Video Scout into biopsy tools, ablation wands, catheters, tissue cutters, scopes and more. We're confident this sort of low cost imaging technology will usher in a new wave of disposable medical products with built in video cameras.

The high cost of health care has led to a big push for more affordable surgical devices. Video Scout has great potential to be a low-cost, single-use alternative to more expensive industry standards. CEO Ben Clawson takes the upside even further:… Read more

Japan university develops see-through fish

In middle school, I had to dissect an earthworm, a snail, a frog, and a fetal pig. I did not like doing this. It's not that I was some animal-rights activist, I just found it to be thoroughly disgusting. I decided then in the eighth grade that under no circumstances was I going to be a doctor.

Instead, I became an Internet blogger who writes stories about this new transparent goldfish being developed in Japan. The idea is that taking dead things apart to see how they work is gross. The solution is to mess with nature to the … Read more